


When Duty's Done

by mydeira



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-26
Updated: 2012-09-26
Packaged: 2017-11-15 02:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/522148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In spite of everything she had done her duty. Now what?</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Duty's Done

It had been for Queen and country as long as Yvonne could remember. Ever since she was little, that had been the driving force in her life. She had studied hard and worked even harder to get where she had at Torchwood. She had been happy and never questioned their mission for a moment. What they did benefited not just the British citizenry but humanity as well. To fight an enemy successfully, you had to understand it. And if some of their tools and weapons could be used against them, all the better.

“If it’s alien, it’s ours,” she had told the Doctor. A good policy that had gotten them far. Until it blew up in their faces so fantastically. The Doctor had been right to lord his knowledge over them. He didn’t know best, but he did know better. And the world had paid the price for their overconfidence.

Yvonne cradled her head in her hands, wishing she could feel anything but the frigid nothingness that encased her now. The Cybermen hadn’t only destroyed her job, they’d taken her humanity as well. After years of collecting and studying alien things, she had become just that, an alien thing to be collected and studied. She would have been ill if it were possible. If the Institute got their hands on her, assuming they didn’t destroy her on sight . . . Oh, god.

“Hello now, what have we here?”

She raised her head to find the Doctor staring up at her from the next landing down. For the first time since she had met him, the man was utterly still. Even when he had been dead serious, there had been a boundless sort of energy radiating from him. Or maybe her steel body hindered her impressions.

“Hello, Doctor,” she said.

He blinked, surprise sending his eyebrows shooting towards his hairline. They settled quickly and he replied softly, “Oh, Yvonne. What have they done to you?”

Well, that answered one of her questions. She thought it had been her mind’s way of coping, but apparently she did still sound close to how she had when she had been human. When she had . . . Yvonne made a choked sound that may very well have been a sob.

He was in front of her in an instant, crouching so that he was eye-level with her. Her sensors alerted her to the fact that something organic in nature had wrapped around her right hand. God, she couldn’t feel things anymore, could she?

“Shh. Easy now.” He reached up and ran his thumb under her eye socket. When he pulled back, the light caught on the wetness clinging to his skin. The Doctor studied it with fascination. “Never in all my years have I seen a Cyberman capable of doing something so utterly human.”

“Woman,” she corrected automatically.

He smiled sadly. “Cyberperson, how’s that?”

“Terrible.” But she felt the faintest tickle of amusement. “What am I doing that I shouldn’t be?”

“Crying, of course.” The Doctor stared at her intensely for a few moments, then shook his head. “They took your body, but not your humanity. You still feel everything, emotion-wise, don’t you?” 

She nodded. “I shouldn’t, should I?”

“No.”

“That explains why they seemed so shocked to have me firing on them.”

“Taken out by one of their—” he caught himself.

“One of their own,” she finished for him. “That’s what I am now, aren’t I? One of them.”

“Well,” the word was drawn out, “yes and no.”

“Which means I’m neither.” She felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness at the thought. She wasn’t human and she wasn’t what she had been turned into. “I bet you think I got exactly what I deserved.”

Again the wide-eyed surprise. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

“Nor would I,” she sighed. Then something occurred to her, “You’re going to destroy me, aren’t you?”

His expression was unreadable. “Is that what you want?”

She shrugged, the metal producing an odd noise as it moved in an unintended way. “There’s nothing for me, is there? Everything I was is gone. What other choice is there?”

“There’s always a choice, Yvonne. Always, even if it doesn’t seem like much of one.” After a moment, he asked her again, “Is that what you want, for me to destroy you? I can’t promise it wouldn’t hurt, but it would be quick.”

It would be easy enough to end it now, spare herself from future agony. Oblivion was preferable to this, wasn’t it? Just a moment and then nothing.

He was looking at her, unblinking, waiting on her response. Finally, she said, “No. Maybe it’s the best option for me, but no. I was never a coward a day in my life, Doctor. It wouldn’t be right for me to become one now.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” he said, smiling, but there was no real joy in it. He stood up and offered her his hand. “Come on.”

“What?”

“From what I’ve seen of your lot, not the best idea for you to hang around here for long.”

She didn’t need the assistance but let him pull her to her feet anyway. It made her feel more normal. “Where are you taking me?”

“The TARDIS right now. Give you a safe place to think things over. After that,” he shrugged. “It’s entirely up to you, Yvonne.”

There was something both terrifying and exciting about that.

“It won’t be easy, will it?” she asked as she followed him.

“Nope.” He turned and flashed her a smile that was more genuine this time. “But easy is boring. Who wants that?”


End file.
